My Compass Does Not Lie
by inu-kokoro
Summary: Miss Swann is in denial and Captain Sparrow wants to help her. JackElizabeth pairing. Spoilers for DMC.
1. The Denial

_Author's Note:_ This is just a short, 1,019 word ficlet that I wrote late at night after thinking about the second movie's happenings. It may or may not be added onto.

_Warning:_ This ficlet contains SPOILERS FOR DEAD MAN'S CHEST, aka the second movie. So don't read on if you haven't seen it/don't know what happens.

_Disclaimer_: Yea, I definitely don't own these awesome characters because Disney does and... I'm not Disney.

My Compass Does Not Lie

by inukokoro

Elizabeth Swann sat on a barrel on the deck of the Black Pearl, gazing out at the endless sea before her. It was late in the evening and the remainder of the crew had retired to their hammocks under the deck. Her dirty blonde hair was hopelessly tangled and dirty from the sea spray and a lack of personal hygiene. Her lips twisted upwards in a bitter smile as she remembered when Jack had told her that they were alike, but she had denied it; using personal hygiene as one of the reasons. The time that had passed during her journey under Captain Barbossa to find him had remedied at least that difference. And after what she had done to Jack to ensure her own safety… She was sure that her moral center was gradually ebbing away.

A month or so ago these changes would have bothered her as much as they bothered Will, but she didn't mind. Jack had been right; she was a pirate. The only remainder of her old life was her name and the length of her hair. She was sorely tempted to hack it all off, or at least cut it down to a decent and manageable length just so it wouldn't be such a bother, but she never found the strength to cut it off. _Although if I had cut it all off, perhaps he would have spared me a glance._ Elizabeth thought sourly.

Even though the rightful captain of the Black Pearl had returned, he seemed to be doing everything he could to avoid her. Every time he had noticed her, he turned sharply on his heel and swaggered in the opposite direction.

She rose from the barrel and strode over to the railing of the ship, placing her forearms on the worn wood and hunching over the side. "Bloody coward." Whether she was referring to Jack for avoiding her or her own cowardice of not confronting him – but what would she do or say to him – she wasn't quite sure.

"'o are you talking 'bout, love?" The familiar deep voice of Jack Sparrow came from her right and she turned to look at him. Her amber eyes were narrowed and reflected her inner turmoil.

"You." Her eyes traveled over him; noting that he seemed to have aged several years during his stay at the world's end. However he was still as alluring as she had found him when he had left – no, when she had condemned him to death. His dark eyes regarded her heavily for a moment before he instantly snapped back into his usual suave self.

"I don' know what you're talking 'bout. I came back to the ship, you said so yourself."

"That's not what I was referring to. You've been avoiding me ever since we rescued you." If this conversation had taken place when she had been more proper, the sea would have looked incredibly interesting at the moment. Instead, she was glaring at him; trying to figure out what was going through his head.

Instead of answering her, he chose to take a large swig of rum from the bottle that his hand tightly gripped. After a minute of awkward silence in which Jack showed no signs of saying something, Elizabeth pulled the bottle of rum from his hand and raised it to her lips and drank some. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and roughly shoved the bottle back at him, which he took.

"Fine, I suppose I'm just wasting my time. Good night, Captain." Her boots combined with her frustrated gait thudded heavily against the wood as she headed to the stairway.

"I trust you still have my compass?" Captain Sparrow called to the ruffled female stomping away and she paused, turning back around to face him.

"Yes." Her hand dove into one of her pockets and she pulled out the navy blue compass, flipping the lid open for one last look. It had never failed to point out the right direction to the aggravating man before her when he was missing; but that had been when their mission was to find him. She was curious as to whether it would point to Will or Jack. Part of her hoped that it would point to her fiancée and hopefully banish the need for having the talk she had been thinking about ever since the kiss. Taking a breath, her eyes took in the direction that the needle was quivering in and then looked up. The sight of an amused looking Jack Sparrow greeted her. With a jerk of her wrist, she tossed the unusual compass towards him. He caught it one handed.

"Is it still broken?" He inquired, mocking her. His trademark grin revealed his golden teeth. "Or have you finally come to terms with what you desire most?"

"It's still broken." She answered defiantly and folded her arms across her chest.

"Ah, still in denial I see." The captain's grin fell slightly into a half grimace as he climbed the set of stairs leading towards the wooden steering wheel. He checked the compass for a moment as he stopped short in front of the device and snapped it shut after seeming to take in what it had pointed to. In indignation, Elizabeth followed his path up the stairs and stopped several feet from him.

"And why do you think I'm in denial, Captain Sparrow?" She demanded hotly. He threw a side long glance in her direction before turning to her and starting taking steps toward her as he spoke.

"Because you're denying that kiss we shared, Miss Swann. Don' lie to me and tell me that you didn' feel a thing because one, I could tell it wasn' just your curiosity anymore that was guiding you and two –" He stopped walking as she felt her back hit the railing. Their eyes were locked as he leaned closer to her, their foreheads nearly touching. She could smell the rum on his breath and vaguely remembered that it would be on her own as well. "my compass does not lie."


	2. The Discussion

_Author's Note_:I can't believe the reviews I got! Wow, well I think you guys pretty much convinced me that I really did need to take some time to sit and think about what would happen next. I had wanted to write more but I was trying to keep everyone in character as much as possible, which presented a problem with Will (because I'm not very fond of him, sorry Will fans). Anyways, I don't forsee this being a long and... Thrilling fanfiction because I've got to leave for New York for a week and then when I come back it's off to Scotland. So if any of you guys are in Scotland for the Fringe Festival, come see Chicago!

_Disclaimer_: It's probably a good thing that I don't own these characters...

My Compass Does Not Lie

by inukokoro

The next day left Elizabeth feeling even more confused than she had been prior to the Captain's return. It had been easy to think about what had happened and not have to worry about what could potentially happen; it had been easier to pretend that she and Will were still going to be married, despite their relationship problems. It had also been easier and much more convenient to write off her muddled feelings of Jack as pre-wedding jitters – after all, marrying someone was a promise to stay with them until either person died!

Her predicament was rather large, she had decided. She would either have to have an awkward talk with Will about ending their relationship because of her feelings for Jack, or she would have to return to Port Royal with Will, wear corsets for the rest of her life, and have children. The latter would have sounded wonderful to her in the past; it was what she had dreamed about since the day she had befriended Will. But now there was Jack Sparrow; who could offer her freedom and a world without corsets. That future seemed a little more than just appealing to her at the moment.

To vent some of her frustration, she took a large and decidedly unladylike bite out of an apple she had found in a barrel. While chewing, movement to her left caught her eye.

It was Will. He was adjusting some of the ropes connected to the mast. She could tell from all of his work that he was truly dedicated to whatever he did; married life with him wouldn't leave her feeling alone or unwanted. He finished securing a rope and turned around, feeling her eyes on him. After scanning the deck, he walked over to her and took a seat next to her on the wooden floor. She swallowed.

"Would you like a bite?" She held out the apple to him. Hopefully today would not be the day for their discussion.

"I've been thinking, Elizabeth." Will started slowly, running a rough hand through his hair. It took a lot of self-restraint on her part not to stand up and bolt to another part of the ship with other men so she could prolong their talk. "And I think it's time you explained what I saw you and Jack doing before the Kraken consumed him." Elizabeth briefly wondered why he couldn't just say he saw she and Jack kissing or if he just wanted her to confess to it.

"The Kraken was after Jack, not us." She finally said.

"Yes, I know that." _Will is such a patient man…_ She thought; knowing that if it had been her in his shoes she would have lost her temper a long time ago.

"And Jack was going to accompany us on the longboat, putting us all in danger. We would have been worse off in the longboat than on the Pearl. The Kraken could have swallowed the longboat whole." The longer she could stick to solid facts to sort this mess out, the better off she would be.

When Will showed no signs of replying, she continued. "After realizing that, I shackled Jack to the mast and got into the longboat." She hoped that Will would follow her logic through instead of having her explain everything she had left out to him; it was obvious that she had kissed Jack to catch him off guard which enabled her to shackle him so that the crew would be saved.

"Why did you kiss him?" He inquired after another awkward silence and his voice made it clear that his patience was fading away. "We're engaged, Elizabeth. If it hadn't been for Lord Beckett, we would've been married!"

"Will, if we had gotten married we wouldn't be in this mess right now because we would still be in Port Royal. I would more than likely be pregnant with your child and would be wearing corsets and ladylike dresses instead of dirty men's clothing."

"But we were engaged." Will protested bitterly, looking in the opposite direction from where she sat.

"What do you mean, we _were_ engaged?" She turned to Will, grabbing one of his arms with her own. "Are you…" Her voice cracked and her grip on him loosened. Even if she wasn't sure that she wanted to marry him, she wasn't sure if she could handle loosing that option.

"I think that we should take a break and decide what we both desire most. If you marry me, Elizabeth, I don't want it to be something that you feel you're forced into. I want you to marry me because we're happy together and we're in love." Will stood up and pulled away from her as he spoke, avoiding looking at her. When he finished speaking he walked away, leaving her to cope with another added feeling to confuse her; the feeling of being broken.

She hadn't meant anything by that kiss and she couldn't believe that Will couldn't see that! It had only been to make Jack less perceptive to what was happening and if she happened to enjoy it a little – no, no she didn't enjoy it. If she had been enjoying it, Jack's compass would have been right and if she knew one thing for certain it was that Jack's compass was mistaken.

Her eyes fell upon her half eaten apple and she glared at it, as though it was somehow the apple's fault that she wasn't engaged any longer. After a moment, she raised it to her mouth to take a bite, but then faltered. Their conversation had made her lose her appetite. With an angry half growl she chucked the apple as far and as hard as she could. Her eyes followed it in its arc over the side of _the Pearl_, a distinctive plop letting her know that it had fallen into the water.

_Damn you, Jack Sparrow._ That infuriating man, after all, was the real reason why she was no longer engaged. If he hadn't tempted her, if he hadn't been such a good man by returning to the ship after trying to abandon it and the crew… If only he really did watch the opportunities to be a good man pass him by and wave at them.


	3. The Drunkard

_Author's Note:_ Hey guys, sorry for the long wait. I was out of town for a week competing in a modeling and talent competition up in New York. (Without internet and free time, I might add.) Anyways it was a lot of fun and you're never going to believe this, because I didn't either. I was staying at the Sheraton, which is right across the street from the Hilton (where the competition was). Guess who was staying at the Hilton? JOHNNY DEPP. So it turns out that he was in town for the Late Show with David Letterman, which was about a block from the hotels. Of course, I was busy at the time but one of the girls in my group overheard that Mr. Depp was on the street, so one of the supervisors told her and her friend that they could go outside to see him! They ran a couple of blocks and caught a glimpse of him from across the street, which is awesome. The sad thing is that I didn't get to see him, though. SOB.

_Disclaimer:_ Yea, you might've already guessed that I don't own any of these characters because... I'm on FanFiction.

My Compass Does Not Lie

by inukokoro

Elizabeth took off her shoes, holding them in her hands and proceeded to tip toe down the staircases that would lead her past the crew and to the cargo; and eventually, to the rum. She was thankful that someone had thoughtfully decided to refill the ship's storage of rum after they had used it on getting the Kraken to stop its advances momentarily. After blowing a stream of air across a row of the bottles to get rid of the thin layer of dust, she pulled out the bottle nearest to her and cradled it to her body.

She wasn't sure how the other men would react if they saw her taking away a rum bottle. They would probably either think that she intended to throw all the rum overboard – one by one, apparently – or that it was a waste for a lady to drink rum. Both of which were ridiculous ideas, of course, because there was no way Elizabeth was going to purge the ship of rum entirely and she was a small woman so it wouldn't take much to make her inebriated.

Once on the top deck she set the bottle of rum down and put her boots back on, hastily lacing them up again. Elizabeth picked up the rum bottle and looked around the deck. It was satisfactorily empty at the moment and she climbed one more staircase to the helm, leaning against the railing there. She tugged the cork out of the bottle, stowing it in her pocket. There was no way she'd be able to drink the whole bottle. _Waste not._ Barbossa's words drifted through her head and she thought of how thankful she was that they hadn't slit her throat.

With a small smile, she raised the bottle to her lips and took a long swig. Rum wasn't her favorite alcoholic beverage and she preferred wine to it any day, but it would have to do. She doubted that pirates kept any wine in their cellar anyway.

She was thinking far too much; she decided and took another long drink. The rum level was considerably lower than it had been before, and yet she didn't feel a thing. The ship took a small dip in a wave and she fell into a sitting position on the wooden deck. It didn't faze her at all and she smiled and took another drink. This wasn't so bad; she could get used to this.

"After all, who bloody needs Will Turner?" Elizabeth mumbled and then said louder, "Not I!"

"No one said you needed 'im." A male voice told her and she looked to her left to see Jack taking a seat next to her.

"They all thought it." She frowned and replied bitterly, swirling the rum around in the bottle. Jack's dirty and decorated hand reached out, snatch the rum bottle from her. "Give that back! I need that!"

Jack's eyebrows raised and he looked at her. "No you don'."

"Yes I do!" She protested, reaching for it but missing because Jack moved it out of her grasp. Sulkily, she folded her arms across her chest and rested her forehead against the wooden railing.

"What's bothering you? The Elizabeth Swann I know would never become intoxicated." He took a long drink of the rum he now held. "Is it dear William?"

"It's not _dear_ William anymore, as we're no longer engaged." She spat out bitterly and held out her hand for the rum bottle. Jack reconsidered his decision to remove the rum from her and gave it back. She took a smaller drink this time and wiped away a trickle of rum with the back of her hand. "He said that we needed to take a break and figure out what we desire most."

"Well, fortunately I have a remedy for that." He pulled out his compass and handed it to her. "It's not broken anymore. But perhaps you need some more rum before opening that, what say you?"

Elizabeth nodded and drank some more of the alcohol, emptying the bottle to about three inches left. It was hard for her to gauge exactly how much she had actually drank, as Jack had his share in the bottle. She sat the bottle down on the deck and took several minutes to pry open the compass. It crossed the back of her mind that it hadn't seemed as hard to open the previous times.

The arrow spun around before settling in one direction, quivering. She looked up and met Jack's eyes.

"Ah." He exhaled, grinning. "It would seem that I am what you desire most."

She looked down at the compass again, shutting it with a distinct snap. "I think I need some more rum." Her hand outstretched and pried the bottle from Jack's hand. After taking a considerably long drink – which emptied the bottle to a small amount that covered the bottom of the bottle but not much else – she set it down on the deck, glibly moving towards Jack at the same time.

The two sat in silence for a while longer; taking turns with the rum until it was gone. Elizabeth continued to edge closer to the pirate and finally took away the rum bottle, setting it down on her other side when it was empty. She laid her head on his shoulder and awkwardly wrapped her arms around his neck. Her eyes fell closed and she inhaled deeply, a drunken smile spreading across her lips.

"What about dear William now?" Jack inquired in a low voice that only seemed to make Elizabeth press herself closer to him. His hand slipped around her waist and stopped at her hip. He reluctantly pulled her away from him and leaned forward, his rough lips against her ear. "What do you want, Elizabeth Swann?"

"I want you, Jack." She felt one of his hands sweep up into her hair before moving down to her jaw and continuing along her neck and downwards. His lips had left her ear and were now on hers; kissing her in a way that Will had never been able to.

Will's kisses had been sweet and gentle, and each one let her know that he loved her with all of his heart. Jack's kisses were unadulterated, rough, and laced with lust. The two were so different that even kissing couldn't be used as something to decide by. Her mouth opened to him, letting him into her mouth.

Jack wasn't a patient man when it came to this, just as Will wasn't for waiting for the opportune moment.


End file.
